Magical Yogi Superpowers...total fail

Today I stopped by the fish counter at Kroger. It’s finally a night when everyone is going to be home at the same time. I forced my kids to cancel their evening’s activities and I’m doing the same. That means we get to celebrate our togetherness with a nice dinner.

The store was oddly empty. I stood at the fish counter for quite some time watching a man in a blue shirt spray the floor behind the counter with a hose. I decided he must be maintenance and reminded myself to be patient as I waited for the return of an actual fish guy.

Finally the man put down his hose, glared at men and asked me what I wanted. He reached behind him for a box of the plastic gloves that people who work with fish must wear. There was only one left. He threw the box angrily and rolled his eyes probably at some other fish guy who was so lazy as to leave a box with only one glove. He left to meander around checking for another box.

He came back having failed and put the one glove on.

I flash of anger sparked in me and I took a breath. In that breath, I looked at this man. I saw him. I saw his whole life. Forty years of age or so. No partner to love. Morbidly obese and physically limited. Hating his job working with dead fish. I wont' say I felt sorry for him. I know that everyone is learning their own lessons, but I did feel compassion for his suffering. I don't know that I could do it.

In that moment I decided to turn on my magical yogi superpowers and I sent him all the love from the universe that I know I exists in my heart. I expected his eyes to widen and for him to take a step back with this amazing jolt of cosmic love.

He just looked at me and then explained that 8 - 10 scallops come in a pound. He then gave me the “hurry up and make up your damn mind” look. I took another breath and turned off my superpowers. I decided to simply be human so I placed my order and chatted him up about the weather. I told him it looked like snow. He predicted a dusting. I remembered that people like to be heard and like to be smart so I asked him if he thought the weather seems off. He talked about the last few years, predicted a mild winter this year and then a nice snowstorm to finish off spring. The summer will be very hot which he hates.

As he talked and I listened, he visibly shifted. By the end of our little conversation he was smiling. He asked that I talk to mother nature about the weather this summer and I told him he seemed more in touch with her than me and would he do me that favor. He laughed.

As I walked away with my fish, I heard a whistling. I looked back. He had picked up the hose again and was spraying down the floor...whistling a happy tune.

I left my yogi powers off and smiled at the power of being human.

Integrity or Satya

As a practicing yogini I wake up with the daily intention to live by the standards of yogism. Yes, yogism is another of my made-up terms. The funny thing about the standards of yogism, Pantanjali's 8 limbs of yoga, is that you can't really understand them on an intellectual level. You have to live them and experience them to truly get it.



Satya is a yama and yama is one of the 8 limbs. There are five Yamas. You can think of satya as a sub-yama. Yamas are the rules of social conduct. They are the foundation for the establishment of a peaceful society and good relationships. The word satya means truthfulness. That seems pretty straightforward. If you tell the truth, you are practicing satya. More profoundly, however, satya is having integrity in thought, word and deed.



Integrity...



Is that a concept you have thought about lately? I don't think I've paused to think about integrity, well maybe ever. I think its because I do live my truth. I say what I mean. I intend to share my thoughts kindly. More importantly, I wake up with an attitude of service to humanity. It's the little things like realizing on the highway that you are no more important than the others dashing off to work and allowing the right of way. It's the bigger things like working cooperatively and for everyone's greater good. It's also knowing who you are and what you believe in. It's having the inability to lie to yourself.

Each day, as I become my yoga, I grow more painfully and beautifully innocent.

It was explained to me long ago by a guru "esque" kind of person that by 2014, no one would be able to tell a lie. It was explained to me yesterday, that 2012 is the year when the masks are taken off. False prophets will be revealed. The true motives, natures and identities of others will shine true as their truth. In a nutshell, integrity is the new black. In an ethical debate, integrity is the opposite of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a lack of consistency between who you think you are and who you want others to believe you are and who you really are. Its the internal debate.



When you get up and look yourself in the eyes each morning, do you see a person with integrity? Would you lie to another or cheat another? Do you act selfishly. Do you justify your actions for some "greater" good? Who are you?



learn more about the 8 limbs of yoga>>>



"Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn't blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won't cheat, then you know he never will." - John D. MacDonald